


Be Careful. Be Quick. Be Quiet.

by onewithroses



Series: Angst Drabble February [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Stiles-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 17:18:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onewithroses/pseuds/onewithroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles mom made sure he knew the rules of magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Careful. Be Quick. Be Quiet.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [missingsun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missingsun/gifts).



> I just feel really bad about being so fail at getting chapters for my longer stories out. Winter funk has me by the teeth. Sorry!

Stiles first does magic at one year old.

He's tiny and round and he has more gums than teeth, still.

He also is able to turn the looping curls of baby-hair green when he sneezes.

His mother changes it back with a twist of her fingers before his father gets home, wraps him in a blanket (and wasn't that--wasn't that blanket blue before?), and laughs circles around the kitchen as he giggles into her shoulder. _You have to be careful, baby. Careful. You can't let others see what you see._

+++

Stiles slams the door shut as he races into the house, throwing his lunchbox (Transformers today--wasn't it Lion King once?) onto the table with a huff and a growl.

His mom hangs up the phone, she can call back and get the results later, and comes to rest her hands on his face. He answers her question before she even speaks it and it makes her smile--gentle, soft.

"Scott said I cheated." She can see the red faces they must have had as they screamed at each other on the playground. This is over a soccer ball and stealing it when Stiles shouldn't have been able to. Scott spent the hour wheezing and screaming himself horse. They will be best friends again tomorrow so she simply asks back, "Did you?"

He shakes his head, more out of stubbornness than truth, and she kisses his forehead. _You have to be quick, baby. Quick. Like the wind. You can't let others see what you do. It's not cheating if they don't know._

+++

Stiles takes his excess energy and pours it into magic that can't work, shouldn't work, and never will. Lives are not colors or soccer balls or bad dreams about the future. _Mom. Mom. I dreamed about the howling again. There's a man in the school and he's going to get me. Going to get Scott._ Mom.

She's too tired to comfort him, to tired to remind him: _You have to stay silent, baby. Silent. Fill up the conversation with other words until your truths go silent too. You can't tell them. You can't tell me._

She doesn't know how well he knows that--because he's dreamed of caskets for years and spent the past two running, running, running until he has nothing left except chatter and day dreams about Lydia Martin and Valentine's day.

+++

Stiles does magic but he doesn't know how and the words his mother told him spin round and round in his head. _Be careful. Be quick. Be quiet._

He can't be anything else.

So when Scott comes by after he survived (moved--faster than even a werewolf should) away from an arrow meant for his heart and Scott says, "Man, it felt like I just flew. Like magic."

Stiles just says, "See? Those extra practices paid off."

And doesn't say any more.


End file.
